FRONTPAGE AMD R9 290 Graphics Card Review

$399 - That's a great price.

OMG!!! So much want

Thanks for another great review, Hokie.
What a sweet deal!

Nice review. I was all set to go w/a GTX 780 until I read this review.

Considering F@H, newer game partners for Mantle being announced almost daily, AIBs probably sampling units as we chat amongst ourselves, I'd say ....hmmm....I'm in.

Oh, yeah, and reverse sticker shock!

Im not surprised, i already had in mind that the 290 will compete with the GTX 780, and the 290X is actually competing with the Titan, even slightly above.

Nvidia may create a new Titan, and a 780 TI, so the 780 TI will compete with the 290X and the old 780 will keep competing with the 290, easy as that. A new Titan is needed because else the popularity may become terribly low at such a price, because the only spec the Titan truly is better at is the DP calculations, and not every Titan buyer is in need of it.

Surely, the non X 290 is the way better deal taking any factors into account (not performance only). There isnt only lower price at the cost of rather low performance (so price/performance is higher) but there is lesser potential for the creation of heat issues, so generally its a better balanced card at a better price. Going for highest performance is always sacrificing many other stats with a rather minor gain in performance. So, a non X 290 is definitely the way to go for a clear majority.

The 290 seems to be a shader-cutted and downclocked version of the 290X, but as long as the chip is binned a good clocked 290 may become a awesome beast with lesser heat issues. Although not easy to get a good chip because AMD will use weaker chips, unable to be clocked high or with full shaders, on purpose. Just a few may be of outstanding quality.

My thoughts now are what is the differences hardware wise and performance wise between the 290 and 290x now that justified the 100$ difference.

Review wise they seem to perform very very similar to each other. so what is it? is the 290x just Temperature limited and being held back by the poor performing reference cooler its shipping with?

I wonder what the gap would be if both the 290 and 290x were in a water loop stretching their legs as far as they can and competing head to head in synthetic and real world scenario game benching.

I also wish to see a Water oc'd 780 and titan in that mix aswell but thats a heck of alot to ask id imagine.

It's too bad there isnt a site that shows water cooled overclocked comparisons head to head it could be very handy. esp for picking blocks to on new cards.

Nice review and... Very nice card!

I dunno about going so far as watercooled, but a properly overclocked 780 Lightning, HoF, or Classy vs the 290 & 290x would be my interest. I'm really liking the looks of these new AMD cards.

WOW! $399 - AMD you are awesome. I do have some concerns with those temps. I wonder how long it will take for some custom cooling solutions from these companies.

Great review. At $399 I couldn't resist so I picked up the MSI this morning from newegg. Hopefully the water blocks come out soon. I can't wait!

sobe said:

I dunno about going so far as watercooled, but a properly overclocked 780 Lightning, HoF, or Classy vs the 290 & 290x would be my interest. I'm really liking the looks of these new AMD cards.

Click to expand...

only reason i say watercooled is we get a glimps of what the cards can do when they are all stretching their ambient legs.

what the potentials are for example.

Looks like there is a bit more stock on the R9 290, there are three models still in stock this morning.

Great review hokie.

I'm working on getting my 290X numbers together right now for some comparisons.

I honestly can't tell the difference on my card between "silent" and "uber" mode on the bios switch. Both seem to keep the fan speed at 40%. I may try doing the BIOS flash and using GPUTweak to see if that will give me some control over the card.

Jesus if it's $399... wow, that might go on my list, I was looking at the 280X which is around $330-350 so that's not a huge jump in price.

But I really don't like that flimsy fan and heatsink setup, hopefully an aftermarket 3x fan from Newegg fits on it, or liquid cooling.

I have not really watch a graphics card launch as close as I have watched this one. Generally how long does it take for manufacturers to release aftermarket cooling solutions on their cards?

From what I've heard, custom R9 290X cards should be out toward the end of Nov. or into December. I'd think the R9 290 will follow the same timeline.

Man, $399??? I am still glad I got a great deal on my 7950, but man I get my bonus check next week, that is sooooo tempting....

wowza! Great performance, amazing price, huge miss on the cooler.
I mean it is one thing to not step on your oem's toes and release a cooler that competes with the aftermarket ones, but this thing looks borderline inadequate.